Sonny Forelli

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Sonny Forelli is the main antagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002). As Don of the Forelli family in Liberty City, he sends Tommy Vercetti to Vice City in 1986 to open up a drug trade. When Tommy builds his own empire and stops paying, Sonny comes south to take it, wins over Lance Vance, and is killed by Tommy at the mansion. Tom Sizemore voiced him.

Who is Sonny Forelli?

Sonny Forelli is the Mafia boss behind the whole plot of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which launched on PlayStation 2 in North America on 29 October 2002, according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia calls him Tommy's boss. He spends most of the game as a voice on the phone from Liberty City, demanding his money, before he shows up in person for the finale.

GTA Wiki says he was born into the Forelli family and took charge young. Under him the family became a major force in Liberty City rackets. He was also willing to move into drugs, a trade the city's older Mafia families had tended to avoid. The wiki describes him as ambitious, impulsive and ruthless, but also charming and good at manipulating people, with famously poor taste in clothes.

What did Sonny Forelli do to Tommy Vercetti?

Tommy Vercetti was one of Sonny's hitmen. GTA Wiki explains that Sonny grew resentful as Tommy's reputation rose. In 1971 he sent Tommy to the Harwood district on a job, and Tommy walked into a group of eleven armed men. He killed them all and went to prison for the killings, serving fifteen years instead of facing execution. Most fans and the wiki assume Sonny arranged the ambush, but the game never confirms it.

That history colours their relationship in Vice City. Sonny talks to Tommy like a friend while treating him like property, and in the last scene he says as much: he thinks the fifteen years Tommy served were his to spend.

Why does Sonny send Tommy to Vice City?

In 1986, with Tommy freshly released, Sonny wants him out of Liberty City and wants a foothold in the drug trade of Vice City. Wikipedia says he sends Tommy south to set up drug operations. The first deal, arranged by the lawyer Ken Rosenberg, is ambushed at the docks. Tommy loses both the Forellis' money and the cocaine, and Sonny orders him to get it all back.

Tommy's search leads to the drug lord Ricardo Diaz. Once Diaz is dead, Tommy takes over his mansion and his empire. He also stops sending Sonny a share. GTA Wiki says Sonny's calls grow angrier, and at one point he threatens Rosenberg's family.

How does Sonny Forelli die?

According to Wikipedia, Sonny first sends collectors to squeeze Tommy's businesses, and Tommy kills them. Sonny then flies to Vice City himself. He has quietly recruited Lance Vance, who has grown bitter about his place in Tommy's organisation. In the final mission, Keep Your Friends Close..., Forelli gunmen attack the Vercetti Estate. Tommy kills Lance, then faces Sonny and kills him in a shootout.

What happened to the Forelli family after Sonny?

GTA Wiki treats Sonny's death as the start of the family's slide. Salvatore Leone of the rival Leone family is said to have seen it as a heavy blow to the Forellis, and the Sindacco family grew stronger in Liberty City during the 1990s. The weakened Forellis still turn up later: in San Andreas they hold a share of Caligula's casino, and in Liberty City Stories, set in 1998, they are among the families fighting the Leones.

Is Sonny Forelli in any other GTA game?

Only by name. GTA Wiki says he is mentioned in The Introduction, the prologue film made for San Andreas, and in Liberty City Stories. In the latter, a poster in Liberty City advertises a film about him called Sonny Forelli: A Real Story.

Who voiced Sonny Forelli?

Sonny was voiced by the American actor Tom Sizemore, who is credited in the Vice City cast on Wikipedia. Like several of the game's leads, the role went to an established film actor. His blustering, ever-angrier phone calls are one of the main ways the game shows the pressure building on Tommy.